Life is good when you’re in an exclusive club with Duke phenom Cooper Flagg. So it is for Boston College guard and Landstown High product Donald Hand, Jr.
Hand, Flagg and Stanford double-double machine Maxime Raynaud are the only ACC players averaging at least 15 points and six rebounds per game. That distinction is among the reasons Hand was named Monday as the conference’s Most Improved Player this season.
“Attitude and character-wise, in the 25 years I’ve been in coaching, he has to be in the top three guys I’ve been around,” BC coach Earl Grant said recently. “Just his ability to be an every-day guy and his work ethic. He’s in the gym every day. We got back from (two games in) California last night, and he’s in the gym.”
The 2022 Virginia Class 6 Player of the Year and a Virginian-Pilot All-Tidewater selection, Hand suffered a season-ending knee injury two games into his college career, testing that work ethic like never before. He averaged 14 minutes per game in a reserve role last season, offering a glimpse of his potential with 10 points and four rebounds in an ACC Tournament upset of Clemson.
The Eagles (12-19) failed to qualify for the league tournament this year, but the 6-foot-5 Hand led them in scoring (15.7), rebounding (6.1), minutes (33.2) and free-throw accuracy (85.5). His scoring and rebounding averages more than triple his output from 2023-24.
Echoing his coach, BC guard Fred Payne said after a game that Hand is “the only person I’ve seen in the gym before the coaches even come here — five in the morning. He’s there every day. He’s just the same Donald Hand every day. It’s like he never changes.”
In voting by ACC media and coaches, Hand was also named honorable mention all-conference Monday. Moreover, he, Flagg and Raynaud were the only players named ACC Player of the Week at least three times.
Hand and his father, former Virginia guard Donald Hand Sr., are first father and son to win Player of the Week. The older Hand was honored in January, 2000.
“Coach Grant always told me my time was gonna come,” Hand said after a game. “My teammates trust me, the coaching staff trusts me, and I just kept putting in the work. Last year, I had the same work ethic, knowing Coach was always preaching ‘the breakthrough’s on the way, the breakthrough’s on the way.’ And when the time came, I was ready, just staying in the gym, staying prepared, and my time came. I was ready.”
OTHER AWARDS: As expected, Flagg, the presumptive No. 1 pick of the this year’s NBA draft, was the landslide choice as the ACC’s top player and freshman. He is the fourth to win both honors, all from Duke: Zion Williamson (2019), Marvin Bagley (2018) and Jahlil Okafor (2015).
Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn earned Defensive Player of the Year, Cal freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson Sixth Man of the Year and Louisville’s Pat Kelsey Coach of the Year.
Joining Flagg and Hepburn on first-team all-conference were Clemson’s Chase Hunter, Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis and Raynaud, the national leader in double-doubles with 23 in 31 games and the lone Division I player averaging more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
DEFENSIVELY CHALLENGED: Interim coach Ron Sanchez has repeatedly cited defense as Virginia’s primary shortcoming, a jarring contrast to the Tony Bennett Era, when the Cavaliers ranked among the nation’s top 10 in defensive efficiency nine times, including last year.
Sure enough, this marks the first time since 2011, the second of Bennett’s 15 seasons, that UVA is not represented on the ACC’s all-defensive team. Moreover, the Cavaliers, No. 141 in defensive efficiency, did not even nominate anyone for the squad.
Ten Virginia players graced the five-man all-defensive team from 2012-24, most recently Ryan Dunn and Reece Beekman a season ago.
TALENT MATTERS: Chase Hunter this year, PJ Hall last season and Hunter Tyson in 2023. For the first time in program history, Clemson has a first-team, all-conference selection in three consecutive seasons.
Not coincidentally, Brad Brownell’s Tigers are 43-17 in ACC regular-season play during that span. Only Duke, at 48-12, has been better the last three years.
Clemson is 10th in this week’s Associated Press poll, the program’s highest ranking ever entering the ACC Tournament.
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